Comedian and author David Sedaris described a confrontation involving an unleashed dog and its owners in Portland, Oregon, in a recent essay published by The New Yorker, detailing both the incident itself and the responses he later received when discussing it publicly.
Sedaris, who has previously made public remarks critical of President Donald Trump, wrote the essay reflecting on how conversations can break down among people who share similar political views.
The piece focuses on an encounter Sedaris said occurred while he was staying in Portland.
In the essay, Sedaris described walking near his hotel when he encountered a group of four adults gathered around a baby carriage.
“I lost count of the strung-out addicts I passed on my way to the doughnut shop and back, and I had just headed out from my hotel again when I came upon three men and a woman, all in their late thirties,” Sedaris wrote.
“The four were gathered around a baby carriage, and as I neared the woman lowered her head into it and took a powerful hit off a pipe. Just as I registered that the carriage was empty, two small dogs, both unleashed, rushed toward me, snarling, and one of them bit me on my left leg, just below the knee.”
Sedaris wrote that after the bite, the woman denied that her dog had bitten him and that the group then returned to smoking fentanyl.
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He did not describe receiving assistance or an apology from the dog’s owners.
The essay also recounts reactions Sedaris said he encountered later while discussing the incident at a book signing.
According to Sedaris, one woman in the audience told him, “You have to understand that these addicts, especially those with an opioid-use disorder, lead incredibly difficult lives.”
Sedaris wrote that he responded, “How is that an excuse? Her dog bit me.”
He said the woman replied, “Well, you’re still better off than she and her friends are.”
Sedaris noted that few people at the event expressed sympathy for his injury.
Another woman reportedly told him, “People like that aren’t in any condition to take care of their animals. That’s the really sad part.”
Sedaris wrote that he responded by pointing to his injured leg and asking, “Is it? Is that the really sad part?”
In the essay, Sedaris reflected on the reaction he received and questioned why the focus shifted away from the dog bite itself.
“[H]ow hard should it be to get a little sympathy when an unleashed dog bites you? What if I were a baby? I wondered. Would people side with me then? What if I were ninety or blind or Nelson Mandela? Why is everyone so afraid of saying that drug addicts shouldn’t let their dogs bite people?” Sedaris wrote.
He then offered his own explanation.
“We’re afraid we’ll be mistaken for Republicans, when, really, isn’t this something we should all be able to agree on?” Sedaris wrote.
“How did allowing dogs to bite people become a Democratic point of principle? Or is it just certain people’s dogs? If a German shepherd jumped, growling, out of one of those Tesla trucks that look like an origami project and its owner, wearing a MAGA hat, yelled, ‘Trumper, no!!!,’ then would the people in my audience be aghast?”
David Sedaris: “How did allowing dogs to bite people become a Democratic point of principle?”
You can insert so many policies into that question.
“How did letting men into women’s spaces become a Democratic point of principle?”
“How did turning cities into open-air drug… https://t.co/0rNvV20e4n
— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) December 15, 2025
The Daily Caller referenced the essay and commented on the broader issue of differing reactions based on circumstance and identity.
“Intersectional exceptions apply. Maybe the addict is a white man who yelled a nasty, objectifying remark at a female passerby. Maybe he’s said a racial slur before — a Portland jury recently ‘acquitted a man who admitted to stabbing a stranger after video captured the victim using a racial slur in the aftermath of the attack,’” the outlet wrote.
The essay drew significant attention online after its publication.
Screenshots of the piece circulated on X, with at least one image of the text receiving more than 850 thousand views.
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